


A very Avengers Christmas

by whereismypie



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Avengers Family, Christmas, Domestic Avengers, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tony Has Issues, Tony Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2020-01-14
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:47:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21953161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whereismypie/pseuds/whereismypie
Summary: It's the first Christmas they celebrate together as a family and (surprisingly) Tony has a few issues. Lots of Fluff seasoned with a little angst and a surprise!
Relationships: Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 5
Kudos: 55





	1. Christmas Eve

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so I know I'm a little late to the party, but I just came back from a long holiday to celebrate Christmas with my partner's family and am still super jetlagged.  
> Also I wrote this on my phone and will update it once I'm back home.  
> This is set after my fic "Don't worry, I've got a plan" (but you don't need to know it to understand this) and after CAWS but before AoU.  
> Anyways enjoy Chapter one!

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

Well that wasn't entirely the case in the Avengers Tower. In fact, there were a lot of things stirring; Clint, Natasha, Bruce and Thor were decorating a 4m Christmas tree (and each other) while two floors above them, Steve and Tony had their first fight. First fight as a couple that is. God knows they had more than a few rows back when they were just team-mates.

Tony had his fist clasped firmly around the handles of his leather travel bag, avoiding Steve's eyes.

"I'm leaving and that's final!"

Steve had his arms crossed in front of his chest, his huge frame blocking the elevator doors of Tony's penthouse apartment in the tower. They had been fighting for hours by now, neither of them willing to give in.  
It was their first Christmas together and Tony insisted that he had to leave for a business trip.  
The fact that Pepper handled all business concerning Stark Industries and Fury and Steve himself took care of anything regarding the Avengers, paired with Tony's reluctance to elaborate what kind of business he had to take care of just confirmed Steve's suspicion that this was about something else entirely.  
But what was yet to be determined.

"Why? Why do you need to go away on our first Christmas together? And don't you dare say you have to take care of business because we both know that's bullshit!"

Steve usually had a good grip on his temper and more often than not was able to keep a cool head.

But even Captain America's patience had a limit. And it was approaching fast.  
Tony had been acting weird for a few days now, ever since the team had decided to do a Secret Santa for Christmas.  
Bruce, Clint and Natasha hadn't celebrated Christmas in years and seemed really excited when Steve first suggested celebrating together.  
Clint and Nat had helped Steve picking out the perfect tree for the tower, which took almost two days, while Bruce feverishly had started drafting a Christmas menu.  
Jane had to work on Christmas day because it was the only time the Hubble Telescope was free for her to use, so Thor had decided to stay with the rest of the team before picking Jane up for New Years Eve.  
Everyone seemed more than happy about spending the holidays together. All but Tony.  
Steve knew that he wasn't that big on holidays, but he would be lying if he said that he wasn't a little disappointed about the lack of enthusiasm.

"I just... I have to leave!"

Steve ran a hand over his face. He was tried and angry, but most of all he was disappointed.  
"Fine. Leave." With that he stepped aside, clearing the path to the elevator.  
Tony only hesitated a second, opened his mouth to speak but instead shook his head and pushed the button to call the lift. The quiet 'Ping' announcing its arrival broke Steve's heart. Without another word from either of them the elevator doors slid closed and Tony was gone.

Half an hour later Steve was downstairs with the rest of the team, helping them decorate the Christmas tree. There was an excessive amount of tinsel everywhere and Steve could have sworn that Clint had more on himself than there was on the tree. None of the very colourful orbs matched and all in all it looked like boxes of Christmas decorations from five different families had thrown up on their tree.

"It is glorious!" Thor declared and everyone nodded in agreement.

No one had brought up the topic of Tony's absence since Steve had joined them and he was glad about that. He smiled softly to himself as he watched Natasha braid tinsel into Thor’s hair. Yes, he was upset and hurt about Tony not being here with them, but he would be damned if he let that ruin his Christmas spirit. Steve was taking another sip of Bruce’s homemade extra strong eggnog, when for the second time today Steve's heart clenched upon hearing the elevators 'Ping', but this time it was out of joy.  
His travel bag gone, Tony entered the common room. He was still avoiding Steve's gaze, but the soldier didn't care. Tony was back and by the looks of it he planned on staying.

"So, interesting tree."

Natasha shifted her focus from Thor’s tinsel-hair and shot Steve a questioning look, as if to ask if Tony is forgiven for leaving in the first place. He couldn't help but give a little chuckle before he nodded.

Apparently, the others had also waited for some sort of signal from Steve. Thor, now abandoning his hairdresser, began to explain how they decorated the tree and Clint started putting Christmas decorations all over Tony, including ornaments around his ears.

Christmas Eve was spend watching a selection of cheesy Christmas movies. Bruce got his will with "Love Actually", threatening to not cook for them otherwise.

After that Clint insisted on watching all of the "Die Hard" movies as a treat for sitting through two and a half hours of Hugh Grant.

Steve didn’t really mind what they would be watching, and Clint assured him that “Die Hard” was a Christmas classic and that Bruce Willis was basically Santa with the small but significant difference that instead of delivering toys to children he delivered bullets to criminals.

By the third movie the only ones still watching were Clint himself and Thor. Natasha had fallen asleep with her head resting in Clint's lap and Bruce had disappeared into the kitchen to start cooking for the next day.  
Tony had left half way through the second "Die Hard" movie and as Steve got up to go to bed as well he wasn't quite sure if he should go to his own room or Tony's.  
Since they had returned from their little island holiday five months ago where he and Tony finally got together, Steve had slept a total of 10 nights in his room.  
Standing in the elevator with his finger hovering over the buttons trying to decide what to do, he actually jumped a little when he heard J.A.R.V.I.S. over the speakers.

"Captain Rogers, Mr. Stark requests to see you."

Despite its formality Steve was more than happy to hear this message. He thanked J.A.R.V.I.S. and a minute later stepped into Tony's penthouse apartment.  
The inventor was pacing up and down in front of the elevator doors, his hair even messier than usual.

Before Steve could say anything, Tony dived head first into one of his rambling monologues.

"I know! You see? I know all this. I know that Christmas is special and all and that it's important for families and you have presents and nice food and tinsel. Oh God so much tinsel! But... I don't. I don't have a family or presents or food. I mean I do now but not then. You see? My Christmas always was my father shouting at me and drinking and then shouting at my mother and then later I was drinking and shouting at him. Like him. And I had Jarvis, the real one, at the beginning when I was a kid but he's gone. And now you are here. And them. And we are a family. And what if all my families do on Christmas is shout and drink? I don't want that. That's why I wanted to leave. I rather not spend the holidays with you than spend them fighting. But then we were fighting about me leaving so we wouldn't fight and I had to come back because... I love you. And I want you to be happy and I hate fighting with you! So I'll try. I am trying. To do Christmas. Like normal people. With you."

Finally, Tony stopped pacing and looked at Steve, his eyes wide and slightly out of breath.

"I'm sorry."

Steve couldn't help but smile. He knew from the beginning that Tony was a hot mess, but then again so was he, just in a different way. He knew that Tony's childhood was less than happy, but this was the first time Tony actually spoke of it.

It pained Steve that his lover had to endure so much pain and hurt throughout the years and he would give everything to turn back time and undo all of it. But since going to the past and altering things, especially to such an extent was impossible, he vowed to do his best to make Tony's present the happiest it could be.

Steve crossed the room and pulled the still panting man into his arms.

"Don't be sorry." He whispered, kissing the side of Tony's head. "I love you."

They remained like this for what felt like hours, Tony with his head resting on Steve's shoulder, arms wrapped tightly around each other, eyes closed. Calm.  
When they eventually broke their embrace, Steve looked down at Tony, his eyes full of love and adoration.

"Thank you. For staying. And if at any point you feel overwhelmed just let me know. We can come up here and hide for a bit. Or go for a walk. Or sit on the top of the tower and look down on the city. Whatever it takes."


	2. Christmas day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Christmas day and time to find out what everyone got in the Secret Santa!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *walks in three weeks late with Starbucks, the second chapter and an outdated meme*
> 
> Hello you wonderful people! I had a pretty bad cought for the last few weeks and some other stuff to take care of but I finally managed to write the second chapter for my little Christmas fic. Even tho it is a little late I hope you enjoy it!

** Christmas Day: **

If anyone had planned on sleeping in on Christmas day, they faced a brutal reality in the form Thor. He had stayed up all night, waiting more or less patiently for sunrise to wake everyone up, so they could open their presents together. So, the moment the sun rose above the New York skyline Thor stormed into everyone’s room to drag them out of bed. The competition for “Person who looked most grumpy about being awake at 7am” was fierce but the runners up were definitely Clint and Tony, who both looked like they were ready to kill as soon as they were awake enough to do so.

Bruce had already been up and about for a couple of hours to cook and make sure everything was just perfect. He also made everyone coffee, which was greatly appreciated. Steve watched Tony basically burry his face in the mug inhaling the coffee, and a smile crossed his face. In his opinion Tony was most adorable in the mornings, eyes still mostly closed, grumpy about the sheer existence of the universe, only soothed by either an obscene amount of coffee or well… naked Steve. Preferably both.

“Okay, who wants to start with opening their present?” Thor asked, barely able to contain all of his excitement.

“Thor, do you want to start?” Nat asked with a grin.

Before she could even finish her sentence, he was all over the presents, looking for the one addressed to him. No two minutes later, the floor was littered with wrapping paper. Thor was holding up a hand-knitted throw depicting the nine realms aligned along Yggdrasil, the tree of life. Thor stared at it, speechless.

“That is gorgeous.” Bruce breathed.

“Who… who made that?” Thor asked.

Steve shook his head. “Thor, the whole point of the Secret Santa is that you don’t know who gave you the present.”

“But I need to know!”

Thor looked around, trying to figure out who made this incredible piece of work and Natasha winked at him. He almost fell over some of the other presents on his way over to Nat to pull her into a bear hug. “Thank you!”

She grinned and kissed the god on the cheek. “You’re welcome.”

When Thor finally released Natasha from his embrace, Clint leaned over to her, finally awake enough to form words. “I didn’t know you could knit.”

“There’s a lot of things I can do that you don’t know about.” She said and winked again.

Meanwhile Thor handed Bruce another little parcel. “Here, that’s from me!”

Steve rubbed his hand over his face, Thor clearly didn’t understand the concept of Secret Santa, but then again, the important bit was that everyone had a good time.

Bruce tore away the wrapping paper. With a puzzled expression he looked down on the bracelet in his hands. “Uhm… thanks for the jewellery?”

With a slight frown, Steve turned to Tony. “How come you never give me any jewellery?” He asked in mock hurt.

Tony almost chocked on his coffee. “W-what?”

“Steve the poor man is barely awake.” Natasha scolded lightly, grinning none the less.

Steve kissed the still confused Tony on the cheek, while Bruce continued to stare down at his bracelet from Thor.

The god came over to him to explain his present. “They are runes. If you put them on, they will grand you knowledge. It’s different for everyone. I thought you might like it. Also, it’s a necklace.”

Bruce blinked, lost for words. “That… that’s… thank you!” He pulled Thor into a hug, which really meant something, since Bruce never ever hugged anyone.

Thor seemed almost happier about Bruce’s excitement for his present than he was about his own.

Releasing Thor from his embrace and walked over to the Christmas tree. He slid the biggest present over to Clint. Steve threw his arms up in surrender. “This is not… oh nevermind!”

“Is it just me or did that box just move?” Tony asked, tilting his head.

The box did indeed move, which was what finally seemed to wake up Clint. He opened the box carefully and nearly dropped his coffee mug. “OH MY GOD BRUCE!”

Tony jumped at the sudden outburst, spilling some of his coffee on his pyjamas. “What the fu- oh you have got to be kidding me!”

Clint lifted a small Labrador puppy out of the box, a huge grin plastered on his face.

Everyone else stood up immediately, Steve and Thor to coo over the new arrival, Tony and Natasha to shout at Bruce.

“Are you crazy?”

“What were you thinking?”

“Get that fleabag out of my house!”

“Why would you even –“

Bruce held his hand up to silence the two of them. “First,” he held up one finger, “it is no longer the Stark Tower but the _Avengers_ Tower, therefore it’s all of our home.” Tony was about to reply, but Bruce didn’t give him a chance to get going, holding up a second finger. “Second, Nat, next time you feel like pulling a prank and change the yogurt to mayonnaise you might wanna reconsider. And Tony, I would think twice when you are about to use my lab and leave it in such a state that I first have to clean up for two days!”

Speechless Tony and Natasha stared at Bruce, who was still wearing his apron which read “All this… and I can cook”.

“Now if you excuse me, I have a meal to prepare.” Bruce turned around on the spot and disappeared back into the kitchen.

“I’m gonna kill him.” Tony mumbled, shaking his head. The last thing he needed was a yappy dog in the building.

“Oh God, Clint will want it to sleep in the bed with us.” Natasha made a face of disgust.

For a long time, all that could be heard in the room, were Clint, Steve and Thor dotting over the bundle of fluff that Clint had named “Lucky”.

Tony and Natasha sat next to each other on the sofa, sulking.

Finally, everyone clamed down enough to continue with the distribution of the presents. Absentmindedly, Clint tossed Tony a package. “Here. Enjoy it, there is more where that came from, but you won’t get any.”

“Thanks for the sentiment Clint.” Tony mumbled, still grumpy, as he unwrapped the gift. It was a pack of Clint’s secret coffee. They had been living together in the tower for a little over two years now and not once did Clint share a single drop of his coffee, no matter how much they begged, pressed or tried to trick him. So, this was definitely a big deal.

Tony’s mood lifted a considerably. “Thanks Clint! This is just what I need.” He was genuinely happy about it and would guard it as one of his most prized possession.

For a moment he didn’t notice the team, sans Bruce, staring at him. “What?”

Steve nudged him gently. “It’s your turn. To give a present.”

Tony’s smile faltered a little. “Uhm… well I’ve got you in the Not-so-secret-Santa and uhm…I’ll give you your present later. When we’re alone.”

Natasha made a gagging noise and Clint fake coughed the word “Gross”.

Steve noticed a peculiar tick in Tony’s eye that only ever shower when he was nervous or trying to hide something. But now was not the time, they would talk when they were alone.

There was still one present to be delivered. Steve stood up and handed the box over to Nat. “I hope you’ll like them.”

He had two daggers custom made for her, one with her emblem of an hourglass and the other with his shield engraved on it.

“Oh Steve! They are beautiful.” She beamed up at him, making him blush a little.

“Well, you mentioned that you wanted some.” He caught Clint staring at him, shaking his head. “What?”

“You’re setting the bar too high man. Now whatever I give her for her birthday has to be better than those.” Clint hissed, hoping Nat wouldn’t hear him.

“That’s not the bar you should worry about babe.” Nat mumbled, admiring her new toys.

“Oh good – wait what?”

The rest of the day was spent with the usual bickering, laughing and joking around and most importantly playing with the puppy. Thor had his new blanket wrapped around his shoulders the whole day and refused to take it off under any circumstances. 

Tony fled to the balcony for almost an hour talking on the phone to Rhodey, apparently having a very heated discussion about one thing or another.

Bruce’s food was even more delicious than usual, and everyone stuffed themselves with turkey, ham, vegetables and an assortment of pies and other desserts. Everyone agreed it was the best Christmas in history.

Back up in Tony’s apartment Steve basically flopped down on the bed. “I am twice the size as before.” He moaned rubbing his tummy. Everything felt warm and fuzzy and wonderful. Tony on the other hand didn’t seem to share his sentiment. He had started pacing again, just like the day before.

Steve popped on his elbows, watching him. “Tony, what’s goin’ on?”

Tony ran his hand through his hair, making it even messier than usual. “Your… your present.”

“Darlin’ I love you, but I don’t think I’m gonna be able to perform adequately tonight. Not after that much food. But there’s always tomorrow.” He said with a sly little grin.

But instead of flirting back or replying with a flirtatious comment there was just silence and more pacing.

Steve was seriously concerned now. He sat up properly and watched Tony. “Hey, you’re starting to scare me.”

Finally, Tony stopped the pacing and went to the living room. Just as Steve was about to get up and follow him, Tony returned with a file in his hand.

“Just… just know that I love you and that I’ll… just… here.” He handed Steve the folder, his hands shaking.

“What is this?” Steve asked perplexed.

“I found Bucky.”


End file.
